With the recent news of the Patriots trading cornerback Stephon Gilmore to the Panthers, and knowing how many 49ers fans wanted the team to make a play, I’m here to show why the 49ers weren’t likely to be in on Gilmore.
First off, according to Gilmore’s cap page on OverTheCap.com, Gilmore will have a $6,179,738 cap number, meaning the Panthers lost that much in cap room.
Gilmore’s cap number comes from a prorated portion of his $7 million base salary, which for the Panthers will be $5,444,444, which is 14 weeks worth, then the Panthers will have to carry $323,529 of his $500,000 per game roster bonus, despite the fact that Gilmore won’t be able to play in 11 games, and he has a $411,765 roster bonus, which I’m not 100% on what that is for, but, the Panthers now are likely on the hook for it.
As for the 49ers, I currently have them at $4,065,885 under the 2021 cap, and this includes their most recent roster moves, including the signing of place kicker Joey Slye.
So, the 49ers would have had to create $2,113,853 to fit Gilmore under their cap, not to mention the money needed for the rest of the season, as there are 14 weeks left, and the 49ers need to have cap room, just like every other NFL team does, to operate for the remainder of the 2021 season.
Now I’ve seen people saying why not just restructure someone, well, let’s look at the only contracts that the 49ers have that can be redone to create cap room.
First, we have left guard Laken Tomlinson, who has a $4.5 million base salary, which could have netted them $2.808 million in cap room, but that is if they had redone him before the 2021 season had begun, but now that we’re already 4 weeks in, he’s already earned $1 million of that, so they could only convert $3.5 million of his base salary into a signing bonus, which would save the team $2.184 million, but, if the team weren’t to extend him, they’d also have an additional $2.184 million in dead money in 2022, as he’s set to count $1,005,530, due to his 2020 restructure.
Next is defensive end Arik Armstead, who has a $6.65 million base salary, but he’s already earned $1,477,778 of it, leaving only $5,172,222 to be converted into a signing bonus, which would save the team $3,521,778, instead of the $4.528 million they would have saved had they redid him before the season began, and like with Tomlinson, the 49ers would see a decrease in cap room in 2022, $880,444 to be exact.
Those two would have brought the 49ers salary cap room up from $4,065,885 to $9,771,663, and if they did the Gilmore trade, they would be left with $3,591,925 in cap room, which isn’t bad, but, with the way the season is going, injury wise, the team is going to need to stay away from touching anyone’s contract, especially when the 49ers need help now, not in 3 weeks when Gilmore would be ready to come off of the reserve/PUP list.
I’m not even going to mention Jimmy Garoppolo, as this was never going to happen, no matter what people wanted, or said, he was never being released or traded, as he gives the 49ers the best chance to win, and no other team has the cap room to take on his salary.
As for the 2022 salary cap ramifications, as of now, I have the 49ers $5,041,914 over a projected $208.2 million cap in 2022, so had they redone Tomlinson, & Armstead, they would have lost $3,064,444 in cap room, putting them $8,106,358 over a projected $208.2 million cap.
This also doesn’t taken into account what Gilmore will want on a new deal, which is apparently $15 million a year, and quite frankly the 49ers can’t afford to pay a 31-year old cornerback that kind of money, not when they have other young players that will be due in the next 2 years, namely Deebo Samuel, Dre Greenlaw, Nick Bosa, Brandon Aiyuk, & Javon Kinlaw, plus anyone that the 49ers will want to bring back in 2022 that are set to be free agents.
Basically, it was never going to happen, and to those who aren’t happy with what the 49ers have said about why they didn’t do a deal, the fact is, every NFL team says the same thing, that they did their due diligence, as no NFL team will come out and say why they did or didn’t do a deal.
And, with all of this said, I thank everyone for reading article, as always you can follow me on Twitter @49erscap, or leave a comment below, and I’ll get back to you.
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